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4 of the best, 4 of the worst: Singapore

Right, I haven’t blogged since before London marathon last year, when to be honest I was falling out of love with running – at least the intense marathon focussed grind aspect of it.

So I moved to Singapore 3 months ago. I wasn’t sure what running I would do, but I’ve got into a good routine of running 6 days a week, and hitting 80-120km a week. My hamstrings can cope with this volume, and it doesn’t seem too invasive to my life. Quite frankly, I don’t have enough water in my body to do the volumes I used to do!

Here are some of my observations of running in Singapore:

First, the BEST:

The wildlife! I’ve seen otters, turtles, eagles, macaques, monitor lizards, wild boar all in or nearby the city which is pretty amazing. So much running is near the water that the nature ecosystem is woven into Singapore.

The adoration. I can’t lie, I’m a biggish fish in a very small pond and I can’t say I don’t enjoy the fact I don’t have to be at my very best to be much more than competitive. That has helped motivate me for sure!

The Park Connector Network. This is a series of towpaths and bridges/underpasses which link up parks and various places of interest throughout Singapore. It means you can run almost anywhere just by following signs and not keep waiting for traffic lights.

People are helpful and humble. I’ve had so many people reach out to me to help me train, and to run with, as well as last minute entries to races. The welcoming attitude has been a huge driving force in me wanting to get half competitive again.

Ok, so what’s bad?

The climate. I come home absolutely soaking wet from every single run. Either because of the intense humidity meaning I am soaked in sweat (even my shoes squelch from the dripping) or much more favourably – an impromptu monsoon. There have been occasions it’s been so hot/humid that I thought I may not make it home!

The average pedestrian. There seems to be some innate unawareness of people around them and people zig-zag around footpaths and seem not to understand that they could move to one side when you are running towards them. Even WORSE is the electric scooter craze – so people are unaware AND motorised!

Athletics tracks are free to use. What? Why is this in the “bad” section? I’ll tell you why – people wander onto tracks and treat it like they are ambling around a supermarket (see point 2). They bring their shopping, their kids, all sorts. Shouting “TRACK” just confuses them and so track sessions are intensely frustrating.

Not much grass. While I enjoy the connector network, and there are also some great trails around the nature reserves – I do miss grass and big parks…